To mark the centenary birthday of Harry Gwala, Solly Mapaila pays tribute to one of the most prominent stalwarts of the ANC and the SACP.
In 1995 Mandela gave a précis of the life and times of Themba Harry Gwala at his funeral when he said: “...Mphephethwa was a great political teacher, who taught generation after generation of struggle. Many of today’s leaders drank from the deep well of Mphephethwa’s political wisdom. But such was the nature of his teaching, that the products of his education, would themselves develop into political giants in their own right, using the tools he gave them to develop independent thought and analysis.”
This is probably the highest praise any revolutionary teacher might receive, those that learnt from him did not become mere admirers, disciples mechanically reciting words and deeds from the master. Instead having drunk from the deep well of political wisdom, they developed in their own right.
But there is also more in Mandela’s genuine admiration for Gwala. It is no secret that there were sharp debates and disagreements among the leadership on Robben Island, with Gwala and Mandela often on different sides.
So what can we in 2020 learn from all of this as we celebrate the important occasion of Harry Gwala’s birthday centenary. We should certainly not distort history, to divide. We should rebuild our movement, uniting the motive forces of the national democratic revolution, as well as the working-class for socialism.
Our immediate challenge is to overcome the coronavirus pandemic and the economic and social crisis of high levels of inequality, unemployment, poverty and unequal development. The Covid-19 pandemic is deepening the crisis. We should do our best to emerge with a developmental path towards shared prosperity, in line with the Freedom Charter.
Working-class unity is particularly essential for defeating the networks of corruption and neoliberalism, and for asserting our democratic national sovereignty, our fundamental right to self-determination, in memory of Harry Gwala.
Former president Nelson Mandela was once asked how he wanted to be remembered. The answer he gave might also well describe Cde Gwala. “I never wanted to be regarded as an angel. I am an ordinary human being with weaknesses, some of them fundamental, and I have made many mistakes in my life. I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as sinner who keeps on trying.”
This can be extended to Harry Gwala as well, as one the texts that best describe him. A teacher by profession, Gwala skilfully integrated national democratic revolutionary and socialist content in his teaching.
He gained the emancipatory content himself as an activist in our liberation movement. Like many militants in the early 1940s, a time when the African National Congress was drifting, Gwala joined the Communist Party first, in 1942. Two years later, in line with the Party’s strategic line, he joined the ANC. He rose through the ranks of the Communist Party and the ANC.
In 1948 Gwala was elected as the ANC Youth League Vice President in Natal, deputy to Jordan Ngubane. In 1950 he was one of the organisers of the national stay-away protest of workers. He organised workers in the chemical and building industries, and established the Rubber and Cable Workers Union in Howick, Pietermaritzburg.
In reaction to his political activism and his unionisation of workers, the apartheid regime listed Gwala under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1952, two years after it adopted the oppressive law, and served with a two year banning order. When he was unable to continue his teaching career, in 1954, he gained employment at Edendale hospital as a typist.
He continued his revolutionary activism, organised doctors and nurses to strike, and was involved in “a pound a day” strikes. He was dismissed, in reaction to his trade union and revolutionary activity.
In the early 1960s, Gwala became involved in the ANC’s underground work in addition to his SACP underground activism. He was arrested in 1964 for sabotage and recruiting members for the joint ANC and SACP military wing, uMkontho weSizwe. He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, which he served on Robben Island.
On his release in 1972 he was served with a restriction order confining him to Pietermaritzburg. He started a laundry collection service as a cover for continuing his underground ANC and SACP work.
He remained at the forefront of the attempts to revive the South African Congress of Trade Unions following detentions and banning of its leaders and members by the apartheid regime. Gwala was detained again in 1975 and was arrested towards the end of 1976 with other ANC leaders for their involvement in the workers strikes that took place in August that year.
In 1977 he was sentenced under the Terrorism Act to life imprisonment. On Robben Island comrade Gwala distinguished himself as a Marxist-Leninist teacher and historian, with a number of political prisoners benefiting from his work.
His stance towards the CODESA negotiations was often highly critical. It was no doubt partly the product of the terrible apartheid-regime instilled violence occurring in the Natal Midlands at the time.
Gwala had huge physical courage. He delivered inspiring, firebrand oratory, making ‘’Munt’omdala’, ‘The lion of the Natal Midlands’ as he was fondly called, more popular with the tripartite Alliance’s rank and file.
In a conflict between the ANC and IFP in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, Gwala asked for no quarter and gave no quarter. He said: “...those who come with bibles will be engaged with bibles, but those who come with guns, fire and brimstone shall be met equally with guns, fire and brimstone...”
Gwala’s militancy and bravery had always marked him out as a particularly grave threat by the apartheid regime. He was in all probability poisoned by the regime and in the latter years of his life he suffered from a debilitating motor-neuron condition.